Downfall of America’s most famous retailer hits new low as beloved brand is left clinging on in only four states

Sears has closed its last store in Washington, leaving it in just four US states.

The department store, once the largest in the country, closed a store at Southcenter Mall in Tukwila, Washington, on December 15.

In the weeks leading up to the closure, the store, which had been there for three decades, organized discount sales for shoppers.

The closure means Sears will have only eight stores left in California, Florida, Massachusetts and Texas.

Locals expressed their sadness when the store closed its doors.

“It’s a milestone, it’s something you grow up with, it’s something you can trust,” Barbie Talamante, a former Sears employee, told Seattle NPR station. KUOW-FM.

“When you were a little kid, you would go into a Sears store and your parents would buy washers, dryers, paint, curtains, whatever.”

Talamante had worked at Sears for more than a decade and this is the second store she has had to close.

But according to a Reddit after from 2022, the Tukwila store seemed to have already passed its peak two years ago.

“It had a random mix of products, the top floor was closed and the toilets were boarded up,” one user wrote on the social media site, alongside photos of the store.

“It gave it a real Dawn of the Dead vibe.”

Despite their reputation for bargains, discount stores like Walmart have been siphoning off Sears customers in recent years.

The department store was founded in 1892 and as of 2012 had more than 4,000 stores in the US.

But the vast majority have now closed since the company filed for bankruptcy in October 2018.

At the beginning of this year, the company also closed its permanent location in the New York area.

A store in Jersey City, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, announced on Facebook a 70 percent discount on its closing sale after in January – ending 40 years at the Newport Center Mall.

Sears is now owned by Transformco, a retail company led by hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert.

Lampert bought control of Sears for $11 billion in 2005 and merged it with Kmart, which he had bought out of bankruptcy two years earlier.

Photos of the Washington store from 2022 appeared to show areas closed off to customers

The vast majority of Sears stores have closed since the company filed for bankruptcy in October 2018 (Photo: A Jersey City store closing sale)

Sears discontinued its catalog in 1993 – just before its 100th anniversary (photo: the 1968 Sears bumper Christmas catalog)

The company opened its first store in Chicago in 1925, next to the warehouse it had used for catalog orders

Sears was once the largest retailer in the US (Photo: The Sears store in Burbank Town Center reopened in October 2023 after closing in November 2022)

But the combined brands have struggled to fend off competition from other major retailers, including Walmart and Target and e-commerce giant Amazon.

It’s a familiar story for many businesses amid the so-called “retail apocalypse” sweeping the US, with thousands of major stores closing.

The struggling retailer quietly reopened two stores in 2023, including one in the Burbank Town Center mall, north of Los Angeles.

But visitors branded it the ‘saddest thing I’ve ever seen’, with empty shelves and stained carpet.

Plans for the company’s future are unclear and it is not known whether further closures are planned in 2025.